The Clevedon Hamster Show took place today at St Andrews church hall. While the AGM took place, I took the camera and went for a walk. Apart from the photo of the Ground Squirrel, the photos below were all taken in the town.
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The London Champs small animal show took place today at its new venue, the East of England Showground in Peterborough. We were there as part of the Hamster Club, as usual. The venue was being shared with the East of England Autumn Show so there were more animals to look at, including sheep, pigs and goats.
Some of the pigeons on display.
The winner of the marrow section of the Giant Vegetable competition.
Some photos from my trip into Cardiff today. We were at the Hamster Show which was held in neaby Radyr (congratulations to our Winter White hamsters who won the Dwarf Hamster categories apart from Best In Show).
This was my first time in the city and I was impressed by the place. Cardiff Bay seemed to be one continuous collection of cafes, bars and restaurants. The city centre itself was ok but I didn't have time for a thorough explore. It rained quite a lot while I was there so I had to be a bit selective with my photos and avoid too much washed out sky.
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This was our second year taking the Hamster Club to the Tabley Showground in Cheshire. It was quite cold in the tent and the Hamster Club tent would suddenly become very popular and fill with people every time it rained.
Every colour of Winter White. These furry spheres were part of the 'display' to demonstrate the different types of hamster which are kept by members of the club. They spent most of the day lined up asleep but whenever someone got a camera out to take a picture, they would wake up and move. I think this was my third attempt to take their photo.
The colours are (from left to right): Pearl, Normal, Sapphire-Pearl, Sapphire.
A giant chocolate muffin which we bought from one of the bakery stands. It was so big it was decorated with smaller cakes.
We have often thought that baby roborovski hamsters look a bit like monkey nuts.
One of these things is not like the others...
We drove north to visit my parents yesterday. We took some pizza dough, a few toppings and a selection of the flavoured cheeses. My parents provided the rest of the toppings and a couple of bottles of wine.
This morning we drove over to Lymm for the hamster show. Anita had a balloon animal kit and was making balloon hamsters for people. I think ours must have been a Winter White Sapphire.
Happy Birthday to 3 of our hamsters: Benny, Bjorn and 'Big Bit', from Orna and Mysterons first litter. They are all 2 years old today.
Bjorn (on the right) with his son, Brennen.
Benny (on the left) with his half-brother Benylin.
The two remaining 'Orn Girls', 'Big Bit' and her younger sister.
Some photos of our recent hamster babies.
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Two of our Roborovski hamsters, Bryn and Darlene, have had babies. When they were between 1 and 2 weeks old, they looked a bit like small furry peanuts. With their over-large heads, they are the same shape as monkey-nuts.
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Today, we went to the Lymm hamster show.
Mid-morning, I went for a walk around the village. I recently got a new phone (a Nokia 5800) and installed Google Maps on it. I used the phone's built-in GPS to keep an eye on where I was during the walk. Most of the time it managed to locate my position fairly accurately.
In the afternoon, there was the Hamster Racing. We entered Bjorn, who is usually fairly hyperactive so we thought he would do well. He kept winning the races, most of the time he finished before the other hamster had gone halfway around the track. He came 2nd overall - he got through to the final but halfway along the track he stopped to clean himself, then turned around and ran back towards the start.
On the drive home we found ourselves listening to the Top 40 countdown on Radio 1. I haven't listened to the charts for years. Most of the time I listen to either Kerrang or Radio 2. These stations usually ignore the charts and play music aimed at their respective audiences*. I think it will be a while before we listen to the charts again - most of the music was awful.
* Kerrang mostly plays guitar-based rock music. On Radio 2 I listen to Terry Wogan (target audience: the insane) and Radcliffe & Macone (target audience: the more mature rock music fan).